"Yankee Doodle Dandies" - Born on July 4th Online Trivia | People

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Our first July 4th baby was born in San Francisco. He initially wanted to be an engineer and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a College of Mining degree. But he eventually decided he wanted to be a cartoonist. He got his first job at "The San Francisco Chronicle". Three years later he moved to N.Y. where he drew cartoons for five newspapers. Do you know who this Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist is?

Answer: Rube Goldberg

Rube Goldburg (1883-1970) won the Pulitzer Prize for his political cartooning in 1948. He was also the first president of the National Cartoon Society and he is the namesake for that association's "Cartoonist of the Year Award".
Some of his most popular cartoon series were "Mike and Ike (They Look Alike)", "Foolish Questions", and "Lala Palooza".

Chester Gould was the creator of "Dick Tracy", Walter Lantz brought us the antics of "Woody Woodpecker", and Willard Mullin was a sports cartoonist for the New York Daily News.

Interesting fact: Rube also died on another meaningful date in U.S. history, December 7th, "a date that shall live in infamy", in 1970.
(Pearl Harbor Dec 7 1941)

2. Morganna Roberts was born July 4th, 1947, and would gain fame as "Morganna the Kissing Bandit", due to her running onto baseball fields during the 1970-80s, and planting a kiss on unsuspecting ballplayers. The crowds loved it (and so did some of the guys!). But that didn't pay the bills, so when not puckering up on the field in what other occupation did she earn a living?

Answer: She was an exotic dancer

No need to over-think this one, she was an exotic dancer 'fer sure. Somehow she had a knack of knowing what games would be on major, if not national TV networks, thereby earning her maximum "exposure".
Interesting fact: Her most famous smooch came when she nailed George Brett at home plate during the 1979 All Star Game.

3. Norm Drucker, born July 4th, 1920, was an National Basketball Association (N.B.A.) official for over 15 years. He officiated in over 25 N.B.A. Championships and three All Star Games. He has the distinction of being the only referee ever to eject one of the all time superstars from a game. Who was it that got his only heave-ho from Norm?

Answer: Wilt Chamberlain

In the 1961-62 season, Wilt Chamberlain played every second of every game, except one, and that came on March 15, 1962, when he was tossed out of the game for his second technical foul, with eight minutes to go, by Mr. Drucker. Drucker was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of fame in 1994 and inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1998.
Interesting fact: The 1961-62 season when Drucker ejected Chamberlain, was the same season in which Wilt scored 100 points in a single game on March 2, 1962 against the New York Knicks.

4. Eva Marie Saint (born July 4th, 1924) in Newark, N.J. is an American actress whose film career spans over 50 years. She graduated from Bowling Green University and also attended The Actors' Studio before embarking on a career that has seen her win an Oscar and an Emmy, and appearing in over 20 movies. For which movie did she win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress?

Answer: On the Waterfront

Talk about getting off to a good start, her Oscar came for her work in "On the Waterfront" (1955), which was her first featured role, playing Edie Doyle, in the film which featured Marlon Brando. Her Emmy Award came from her performance in "People Like Us" a T.V. mini-series (1990). Ms. Saint has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Interesting fact: For three seasons, she played the role of Cybil Shepherd's mother on the popular TV series "Moonlighting".

5. Gangster Meyer Lansky, born Meyer Suchowljansky on July 4th, 1902 in Russia, came to the U.S. in 1911, and became an American citizen. He was a key figure in the infamous "Black Sox Scandal", in which members of the Chicago White Sox were paid off to throw the 1919 World Series for the benefit of mob gamblers. Which team benefitted by defeating the Sox and becomming World Series Champs?

Answer: Cincinnati Reds

For some inexplicable reason, back then the Series was an eight game battle and the Reds would win it five games to three. During the second World War, the Jewish Lansky, and criminals he recruited would work closely with the U.S. Navy to find and point out any Nazi sympathizers, infiltrators and/or saboteurs looking to destroy U.S. submarines. He eventually retired and lived in Miami Beach, FL until he died of lung cancer in 1983 at the age of 80.
Interesting fact: As a result of Lansky's orchestration of the World Series,
eight members of the "Black Sox" were banned from baseball for life.
The movie "Eight Men Out" (1988) chronicles the events of that scandal.

6. Shelly Oates-Wilding is one of Australia's top women athletes, a dual Olympian who competed in the 1996 games in Atlanta, GA, U.S.A and the 2000 games held in the town where she was born on July 4th, 1965 - Sydney, Australia. In what Olympic sport did this athlete from "down under" compete?

Answer: Canoeing

Shelly is her name and canoeing is her sport, and she enjoyed her best Olympic performance in the '96 Atlanta games. She is retired from competitive racing and having graduated as a Physical Education Teacher, she now has her own business in which she helps young athletes with fitness and health training as well as giving motivational speeches.
Interesting fact: She was an international netball star, and it was only because a serious knee injury that she was forced to quit that sport and instead later take up canoeing.

7. Calvin Coolidge was the first U.S. President to have been born on the Fourth of July (1872). He was a lawyer by trade, and was the 48th governor of Massachusetts. He became the 29th vice president under Warren Harding in 1921, and succeeded to the presidency when Harding passed away while on a speaking tour in California on August 23, 1923. Years later after the news of the death of President Calvin Coolidge on January 5, 1933, how did Washington columnist Dorothy Parker respond?

Answer: She said, "How can you tell?"

Thanks to an invitation from President Harding, Coolidge became the first V.P. ever to attend a cabinet meeting. He was also the first president to address the nation by way of the radio, doing so when his address to Congress was broadcast on December 6, 1923.
Interesting fact: Dorothy Parker, a famous literary figure of "The Roaring Twenties", once told Silent Cal that she had made a bet with someone who said she would be unable to get him to say more than a couple of words. He responded by saying: "You lose".

8. Hotelier and real estate investor, Leona Helmsley was born Lena Mindy Rosenthal July 4th, 1920. She was nicknamed "The Queen of Mean". She once told a former houskeeper: "we don't pay taxes, only little people pay taxes", a comment that helped lead to her indictment for, among other things, income tax evasion. She was found guilty and sentenced to 16 years in the slammer but wound up serving less than 20 months. When she died, her estate was estimated to be over four billion dollars. In her will, to whom did she leave $100,000?

Answer: her chauffeur, Nicholas Celea

Nicholas Celea was the recipient of the hundred grand. She had originally bequeathed her dog, Trouble, $12 million bucks, an award that was later reduced to $2 million. Leona was married to three men (one of them twice), the most famous being Harry Helmsley whom she married in 1972, and had only one child, Leo Panzirer. When Leo died in 1982, his widow, Mimi, was living in a property owned by Helmsley who promptly served her with an eviction notice.
In a seemingly out of character gesture, she donated five million dollars, to assist the families of firefighters, following the 9/11/01 terrorist attact on the World Trade Center in New York City.
Interesting fact: Ironically she was ordered to begin her prison sentence on 'tax day", April 15, 1992.

9. American playwright and screenwriter, Neil Simon was born July 4th, 1927 (his given name was Marvin Neil). He has written over 30 plays, and screenplays for over 20 movies. He has won three Tony Awards and two Emmy Awards. Incredibly, in 1966, there were four Neil Simon shows playing in The Big Apple at the same time. Which of the following was NOT one of them?

Answer: Biloxi Blues

"The Odd Couple" was the fourth - "Biloxi Blues" hit the Great White Way in 1985. His three Tony's were for Best Author for "The Odd Couple" (1965), a Special Recognition Award (1985), and for Best Play, "Biloxi Blues" (1985).
His two Emmy Awards were for "Your Show of Shows" (1957) and "The Phil Silvers Show" (1959.) He was voted Cue Magazine's "Entertainer of the Year" in 1972.
Interesting fact: In 1983 he was recognized for his work in a most unusual way, as he became the first living playwright to have a New York theatre named after him, when The Alvin Theatre was renamed The Neil Simon Theatre.

10. This Fourth of July birthday baby may not be a true "Yankee Doodle Dandy" since she wasn't born in the U.S.A., but there are not many Yanks who haven't been capivated by Gina Lollobrigida. She was a model before turning to acting. She would make over 25 films and win more than a dozen awards in Europe before heading to Hollywood. What was her first American movie?

Answer: Beat the Devil

In 1953 she made her U.S. debut in "Beat the Devil", with Humphrey Bogart. She later appeared in "Trapeze" with Burt Lancaster, and in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" with Anthony Quinn, both in 1956, and in 1959 she made "Solomon and Sheba" with Yul Brynner.

She received a Golden Globe nomination for "Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell" (1968) and won a Golden Globe Award for "Come September" (1961). In the mid 1980's she starred in a role which had been turned down by Sophia Loren in the T.V. series "Falcon Crest".

She was always a welcome and popular addition on Bob Hope's trips to entertain American troops overseas. Interesting fact: Gina got paired with Yul Brynner in "Solomon and Sheba" when Tyrone Power who had originally been chosen to play the male lead died during the shooting of the film.

Source: Author paulmallon

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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"Yankee Doodle Dandies" - Born on July 4th Quiz

Some birthdays are easier to remember than others, especially when they fall on a national holiday. Sorry, Mr. Steinbrenner, although you qualify, you didn't make the final cut, but almost all of these are "Yankee" Doodle Dandies.

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